Synthetic marijuana is legal in Pennsylvania, but potent and dangerous, experts say

View full sizeSEAN SIMMERS, The Patriot-NewsBrian Edmondson of Hemp's Above in Mechanicsburg is getting a lot of customers looking to purchase synthetic marijuana, being marketed as herbal incense.

BY IVEY DeJESUS AND KOURTNEY GEERS, The Patriot-News

A sandwich bag filled with oregano has long served as the punchline for practical jokes on unsuspecting parents or gullible roommates.

Fake marijuana has certainly come a long way.

Sold as herbal incense under names such as K2, Spice, Genie and Wicked, a synthetic marijuana has legions of smokers around the country rolling it or putting it in their pipes.

Banned in eight states, it’s legal in Pennsylvania — for now — and sold in head shops, at some gas stations and on the Internet. Yet this synthetic and chemically treated substance is potent and potentially dangerous.

“Most people aren’t expecting it to be that potent. It’s overpowering,” said Roger Weaver, who works at Hemp’s Above, a Mechanicsburg shop that carries mostly smoking accoutrements.

Since the shop started carrying herbal incense a few months ago, sales have been brisk, drawing a cadre of return customers, many lured by the fact that the incense leaves no chemical trace in the bloodstream.

“There’s a lot of people who work in sensitive jobs,” said Hemp’s Above owner Brian Edmondson.

‘I don’t sell junk’ On a recent afternoon, a woman accompanied by two men entered the shop to buy herbal incense.

“It’s legal. If we get caught with it, we won’t go to jail,” she said. Regardless, she would not give her name.

She said it’s worth the money: “If you get caught with pot, you get fined and all sorts of crap.”

Edmondson finalized the sale and resumed his place behind the glass case that carries his products. “I don’t sell junk. What’s in there is the best,” said Edmondson, who has tried the stuff.

Tending to a first-time buyer, he suggested the man try the less-potent variety.

The effects vary by brand from a “meditative” state to something a little stronger.

“It has higher plateau and a bigger drop,” Edmondson said. “Once it starts to go — it starts fairly quickly and ends fairly quickly. The duration is not quick.”

Edmondson won’t sell to anyone under 18. He checks customer’s identification and doesn’t even allow parents to bring their children into the shop.

View full sizeSEAN SIMMERS, The Patriot-NewsWicked X, a brand of synthetic marijuana.

Flavored and potent K2 is the common reference for herbal incense. Edmondson’s shop doesn’t carry the brand K2, however, because distributors have high minimum orders.

He carries mostly Wicked, a brand distributed by King Krypto in Florida, and averages 100 grams in sales a week.

Edmondson sells the vials by the gram, ranging in price from $20 to $100, and in flavors such as strawberry, mint and blueberry. That means that when smoked, the herbal incense emits a fruity aroma. Still, Edmondson thinks it’s a bad idea to smoke it in public.

He pulled one of the vials out of the glass case and read the label: “We are not liable for anything.”

The synthetic cannabinoids found in herbal incense are reported to be four to five times more potent than THC, the psychoactive substance in cannabis.

“Technically, it’s incense,” Edmondson said. “It’s not supposed to be rolled or smoked in a pipe. But what anyone does with it, it’s up to them.”

Edmondson said the last trend that brought business like this to his store was salvia divinorum, an herb once used by Mazatec Indians in Mexico to treat diarrhea and headache.

Users smoke the plant’s dried leaves to get a high reportedly similar to that of LSD. Edmondson’s shop still carries it, but it’s on the wall behind the featured glass case of Wicked products.

Salvia gained national attention in 2006 when it was said to be a contributing factor in the suicide of a 17-year-old Delaware boy. Just after Brett Chidester’s death, the Delaware Legislature banned salvia.

Ahead of the police There seems to be a disconnect between the popularity of herbal incense and the knowledge about it by state police, hospitals, and drug and alcohol service programs in Pennsylvania.

Most said they haven’t encountered K2 or Wicked, while neighbors Ohio, New York and New Jersey are considering banning it.

On Friday, state Rep. Jennifer L. Mann, D-Lehigh, introduced legislation to ban the sale or use of synthetic marijuana in Pennsylvania.

She said the drug is so new that no federal or Pennsylvania law exists to give police the right to arrest those who possess the substance.

“By setting clear guidelines on the use and consumption of synthetic marijuana, we empower our law enforcement personnel to stop the spread of this new threat to our children and communities,” Mann said.

Some bans around the country are based on reports of people being sent to hospitals after smoking the substance. Authorities in Iowa are investigating whether an 18-year-old committed suicide after smoking synthetic marijuana with friends.

The American Association of Poison Control Centers reports minor to moderate reactions to synthetic marijuana, including fast heart rates, confusion and nausea. None of the 698 poison reports related to synthetic marijuana in 2010 is from Pennsylvania.

The woman in Edmondson’s shop said the substance doesn’t generate a uniform effect.

“It’s different for everybody,” she said.

The unknown factor Synthetic marijuana isn’t new. Newsweek reported that the active ingredients were developed by John W. Huffman, a Clemson University chemist, in the mid-1990s for therapeutic purposes.

Bryan Doherty, a spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said the problem is the way the substance is being created, distributed and consumed.

The DEA’s website lists five chemicals that are known to be sprayed onto mixes of herbs and then sold to people looking for the synthetic high.

“Anytime you put an unknown chemical with unknown effects into your body, you are taking a great risk,” Doherty said.

Because of the various ways the products are produced, it’s practically impossible for users to know which they have picked up.

One smoker in a Camp Hill shop, who asked to remain anonymous because of the stigma of smoking, said that he is epileptic and that smoking marijuana triggered his seizures.

Now, he said, he is able to smoke a variety of synthetic marijuana products without side effects. He said the many brands and packages use different ingredients, producing various highs, just as different strains of marijuana plants do.

To him, the high lasts as long, but never longer than the real thing. And the risk is worth it, he said.

A low profile Despite the substance’s availability in the Harrisburg area, Holy Spirit Hospital in East Pennsboro Township, PinnacleHealth System in Harrisburg and Penn State Hershey Medical Center said they have not seen patients with negative reactions to the drug.

Matthew Bennett, a prevention specialist at the Cumberland Perry Drug and Alcohol Commission, said his organization has heard of the drug but has yet to see it.

“Often what we see when something new comes out in the drug and alcohol scene, it gets a lot of attention,” Bennett said. “It’s a buzz word, no pun intended. Alcohol, tobacco and marijuana remain the main three in the area.”

Mavis Nimoh, the director of Drug and Alcohol Services for Dauphin County, said juvenile probation officers reported just two kids using synthetic marijuana.

“I’m sure the presence is here,” Nimoh said, but she said she thinks people might not differentiate the synthetic marijuana from the real thing when they have encountered it.

The problem that Nimoh expects to encounter is how her program and similar programs should treat the substance because it is sold legally.

Nimoh said she was considering treating it like salvia, emphasizing that it’s still a drug with negative effects.

Deb Beck, the president of the Drug and Alcohol Service Providers Organization of Pennsylvania, said that fads come and go, but alcohol and prescription drugs remain the biggest problem for those with substance-abuse problems.

Bennett said that increasing awareness of synthetic marijuana is the best bet for controlling it.

“It’s about due diligence. We try to stay on top of all current drug trends and keep it on people’s radars,” he said.

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